Foreign languages to be compulsory from age seven

Ministers will have to reconsider compulsory language lessons for 14 to 16-year-olds, if measures announced yesterday fail to inspire thousands of youngsters to take up the subject.

Lord Dearing, appointed by Education Secretary Alan Johnson to head an inquiry into modern foreign languages teaching, said he wanted a 90 per cent participation rate among teenagers by the end of the decade. The current figure is about 50 per cent.

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His report published yesterday recommended: "Failing a response of that kind from schools, headteachers and language departments, we [recommend] a return to some form of mandatory requirement."

Lord Dearing announced a series of measures to give language teaching in schools a boost and avoid a return to compulsory lessons up to 16.

Participation at GCSE level plummeted from 80 per cent to 50 per cent after the Government's decision to make the subject voluntary - a policy which Mr Johnson admitted had gone "dramatically wrong". The key recommendation of the inquiry - accepted by Mr Johnson - was that languages should become compulsory for all children from the age of seven. This will be introduced in 2010 as part of a review of the primary school curriculum and be gradually phased in for seven to 11-year-olds over a four-year period. The report says this could lead to more schools starting language teaching earlier.

Mr Johnson said: "The earlier you start learning a language, the better. Making languages compulsory from seven to 14 will give pupils seven years to build up their knowledge, confidence and experience."

However, the drive in primary schools will be coupled with measures aimed at making languages a more attractive option for secondary school pupils. In particular, Lord Dearing's report urges exams advisers to consider the introduction of a new international business languages GCSE - which would allow budding entrepreneurs to study a wider range of languages in less depth than if they had opted for French, German or Spanish on their own.

He also wants an inquiry to determine whether - as suggested by research from Durham University - it is harder to achieve good grades in language GCSEs than in other subjects.

"This needs to be resolved one way or the other by a definitive study, because the present widely held perception in schools is adversely affecting the study of languages through to GCSE," the report says.

Lord Dearing also confirms the recommendation that the languages offered should be widened to include Mandarin, Urdu and the languages of ethnic minority groups in the UK. He calls for a £50m a year budget to improve the training of language teachers.

The idea that language learning should start at the age of seven received almost universal approval last night. However, Nick Gibb, the Conservatives' schools spokesman, warned: "When Labour came to power 77 per cent of 15-year-olds were studying a modern foreign language to GCSE. Now, as a direct consequence of decisions taken by Education ministers, this figure is just 51 per cent.

"Dearing's report is attempting to deal with the symptoms of the decision to end compulsion to study a foreign language from 14. It does nothing to tackle theunderlying causes of the problem."

Sarah Teather, for the Liberal Democrats, added: "The Government is right that the optimum time to introduce pupils to foreign languages is when they are young.

"But currently, there simply aren't enough modern language graduates going into teaching. Even with any new recruitment drive it will take years to get the necessary workforce into our classrooms."

The main recommendations

* Languages to be compulsory for all seven-year-olds from 2010

* Number of specialist language colleges to be increased to 400

* An inquiry set up to determine whether languages GCSEs are harder than any other subjects

* £50m a year boost to language teaching to train more teachers

* Target of 90 per cent of all 14-year-olds to study a language from 2010

* Range of languages offered to seven to 14-year-olds to include Mandarin, Urdu and other ethnic-minority languages

* New languages "ladder" promoted - so pupils can take grade exams at any age, as in music

* "Open School for Languages" to teach languages in schools without trained staff

* If all this fails to increase participation at GCSE age, a return to compulsory lessons for that age group should be considered